My Week in Books, Movies and TV 4/12/19

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I actually have a movie, a new TV show and a book to talk about this week. I’m sure everyone is very excited about that. Here we go

Movies – We watched Creed II this week. We recently rewatched Rocky 4 and Creed in preparation since my wife did not remember watching either movie. Creed II is a sequel to both as Creed is challenged to fight the son of Drago, the guy who killed his father in Rocky 4. If you are a fan of the Rocky/Creed series you will really like the movie. If you have not watched the Rocky/Creed movies, I’m not sure why you would watch this one. The only thing I thought could have been better in the movie is the portrayal of Drago and his son. I felt like there was a better story to tell there and it felt like they were headed in the direction of more nuance there, but then never went there. I thought we had learned that there can be nuance to the villain’s story.

TV – I’m me, so I watched a lot of TV this week. We did watch a new show last night – The Code. I don’t watch any of the NCIS shows with my wife and this seemed like an NCIS show in the previews. It didn’t get great reviews and the reviewer felt like it could have been another NCIS show. I was not hopeful, but I decided to watch anyway since it focuses on military lawyers and I love a good lawyer show. There was nothing groundbreaking here. It likely won’t win any awards. I liked it. I liked the cast. I liked their characters. They told an interesting story. I will watch it again. I am a simple man with simple tastes. I’m also getting old, so it was only a matter of time before I started watching CBS procedurals.

Books – I finished You Know You Want This by Kristen Roupenian. It is a collection of stories. One reviewer on Goodreads gave it a lower rating because she thought while the writing was good, it was very bleak. She’s correct that the stories are not feel good stories. Don’t read this if you are looking for upbeat stuff. There is no upbeat here. It is very good, though. I never considered moving on to a novel after finishing one of the stories as I usually do with collections. I would recommend if you can handle bleak.

On Deck – I have way too many movies from the library. I will not have time to watch them all. I’m sure I will watch whichever one my wife might have heard of which means Venom and maybe Instant Family. I will make a push for Green Book and The Girl in the Spider’s Web. I might need to try to stay up late or get up early to watch something alone. The big TV event is the Game of Thrones premiere. I have warned my wife that I will be watching live so she will need to decide what to do with herself. I don’t want to risk spoilers by waiting. Amazing Race also starts back up Wednesday night. I love the show and this one has Survivor, Big Brother and Amazing Race people competing against each other. It should be fun. I will probably also try Bless This Mess because I like Dax Shepard. That’s a lot on deck this week.